Publications

WCFIA Publications

The Weatherhead Center has developed a presence on the Internet that, to a growing readership, is playing a significant role in the projection of Harvard scholarship on international affairs. The site includes: faculty research available through categorical fields of inquiry; searches by author, subject, title or date of publication; Working Papers selected for online distribution based on their relevance to contemporary issues in international affairs; In the News links to op-ed and other pieces written by or about the Center’s faculty associates; and recent books by faculty associates, including editorial summaries. The Center is always adding to the collection of published journal articles available on its site and responding to the interests of Center faculty and other users in making the site an indispensable scholarly tool.

Below are a selection of our most recently uploaded publications.


Fiscal Devaluations
by Gopinath, Gita
We show that even when the exchange rate cannot be devalued, a small set of conventional fiscal instruments can robustly replicate the real allocations attained under a nominal exchange rate...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: November, 2011 More
Trade Prices and the Global Trade Collapse of 2008–2009
by Gopinath, Gita
We document the behavior of trade prices during the Great Trade Collapse of 2008–2009 using transaction-level data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. First, we find that differentiated...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: November, 2011 More
Romney to the Rescue
by Ferguson, Niall
Publisher: The Daily Beast
Publication Type: Op-ed
This column is for Ted Forstmann: financier, fun lover, and philanthropist, who died on Nov. 20. But it’s not just for him. It’s to him. Ted, I’m worried. I wish you were still around to...
Published Date: November 2011 More
A Eulogy for Financier Ted Forstmann
by Ferguson, Niall
Publisher: The Daily Beast
Publication Type: Op-ed
Some of you knew Ted Forstmann much better than I did. Most of you knew him much longer. When Ted’s family and closest colleagues asked me to join Mayor Bloomberg and Charlie Rose in offering a...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Obama Team’s Al-Awlaki Memo Furthered Bush Legacy
by Feldman, Noah
Publisher: Bloomberg View
Publication Type: Op-ed
Killing terrorists with drones is great politics. To the question, “Is it legal?” a natural answer might well be, “Who cares?” But the legal justifications in the war on terrorism do...
Published Date: October 2011 More
Technology Diffusion and Postwar Growth
by Comin, Diego
In the aftermath of World War II, the world's economies exhibited very different rates of economic recovery. We provide evidence that those countries that caught up the most with the US in the...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: June, 2010 More
What Really Went Wrong in Greece?
by Mylonas, Harris
Publisher: CNN.com
Publication Type: Op-ed
After reading about the Greek debt crisis for over a year now, you might think you understand what it’s all about. You’re probably wrong. International media focus on how the Greek government...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Addressing ‘the Kurdish Question’
by Martin, Lenore G.
Publisher: New York Times
Publication Type: Op-ed
It is obvious that the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems with the neighbors” policy no longer works, in the face of Turkey’s support for the Syrian defectors who...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Massachusetts' Health Care Reform and Emergency Department Utilization
by Chandra, Amitabh
Does an expansion of health insurance increase or decrease use of the emergency department (ED)? Both predictions can be justified logically. On the one hand, research on patient cost sharing...
Publication Type: Published Paper
Published Date: September 2011 More
Greece's Legitimacy Crisis
by Mylonas, Harris; Meaney, Thomas
Publisher: CNN.com
Publication Type: Op-ed
In the past 48 hours, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has succeeded in one thing: Stirring up the anger of nearly everyone around him. The European Union, his own party PASOK, the opposition...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Public Policy, Price Shocks, and Civil War in Developing Countries
by Carter, Brett; Bates, Robert H.
Those who study the role of agriculture in the political economy of development focus on government policy choices on the one hand and the impact of price shocks on the other. We argue that the two...
Publication Type: WCFIA Working Paper
Published Date: January 2012 More
Are Greece's Leaders Being Reckless or Bold?
by Mylonas, Harris
Publisher: CNN.com
Publication Type: Op-ed
Call it reckless, call it bold, but the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, has attempted to transform a referendum on the European Union bailout plan for Greece into a referendum about whether...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Lost in Transition: Youth, Work, and Instability in Postindustrial Japan
by Brinton, Mary C.
Lost in Transition tells the story of the “lost generation” that came of age in Japan's deep economic recession in the 1990s. The book argues that Japan is in the midst of profound changes that...
Publication Type: Book
Published Date: December 2011 More

His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire
by Bose, Sugata
The man whom Indian nationalists perceived as the “George Washington of India” and who was President of the Indian National Congress in 1938–1939 is a legendary figure. Called Netaji...
Publication Type: Book
Published Date: May 2011 More

Red, Blue, and the Flu: Media Self-Selection and Partisan Gaps in Swine Flu Vaccinations
by Baum, Matthew
This study assesses the relationship between political partisanship and attitudes and behavior with respect to the Swine Flu crisis of 2009 in general, and the US mass vaccination program in...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: January 2011 More